Personaliy Disorders

ania · #1 (**permalink**) 03-01-06, 09:42 AM

What is a Personality Disorder?
Those who struggle with a personality disorder have great difficulty dealing with other people. They tend to be inflexible, rigid, and unable to respond to the changes and demands of life. Although they feel that their behavior patterns are ?normal? or ?right,? people with personality disorders tend to have a narrow view of the world and find it difficult to participate in social activities.

What Causes a Personality Disorder?
Some experts believe that events occurring in early childhood exert a powerful influence upon behavior later in life. Others indicate that people are genetically predisposed to personality disorders. In some cases, however, environmental facts may cause a person who is already genetically vulnerable to develop a personality disorder.

Types of Personality Disorders

There are many formally identified personality disorders, each with their own set of behaviors and symptoms. Many of these fall into three different categories or clusters:

1.) Cluster A: Odd or eccentric behavior

2.) Cluster B: Dramatic, emotional or erratic behavior

3.) Cluster C: Anxious fearful behavior

Since there are too many identified types of personality disorders to explain in this context, we will only review a few in each cluster.

The Types of personalitys disorders I want to focus are in Cluster B in this one you found Bordeline Disorder. There is a lot of people who suffer of this problem and do not even know. people with this problem really need help.A person with this disorder can often be bright and intelligent, and appear warm, friendly and competent. They sometimes can maintain this appearance for a number of years until their defense structure crumbles, usually around a stressful situation like the breakup of a romantic relationship or the death of a parent

Borderline Personality Disorder

People with borderline personality disorder are unstable in several areas, including interpersonal relationships, behavior, mood, and self-image. Abrupt and extreme mood changes, stormy interpersonal relationships, an unstable and fluctuating self-image, unpredictable and self-destructive actions characterize the person with borderline personality disorder. These individuals generally have great difficulty with their own sense of identity. There have also sexuality, life goals and values, career choices, friendships problems. They often experience the world in extremes, viewing others as either ?all good? or ?all bad.? A person with borderline personality may form an intense personal attachment with someone only to quickly dissolve it over a perceived slight.

Under extreme stress or in severe cases there can be brief psychotic episodes with loss of contact with reality or bizarre behavior or symptoms.

Fears of abandonment may lead to an excessive dependency on others. Self-multilation or recurrent suicidal gestures may be used to get attention or manipulate others.

Sources: National Mental Health Association

Essentials of Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing ( Mary C Townsend)